Seized by panic, he swung open the door.
He saw no sign of her but called out anyway. “Carmen, wait!” His voice echoed in the hallway, and he hurried toward the staircase, barefoot and determined to stop her. He caught a glimpse of her at the bottom of the stairs before she disappeared.
“Carmen!”
Grabbing on to the railing on either side, he hopped down the stairs, three at a time.
As he pushed through the door, she dived into the waiting Lincoln Navigator and Franklin shut the door. Carlos ran forward, but the big man stepped in front of him, arms crossed, staring down through his dark aviator sunglasses. An impenetrable mahogany wall. Carlos pulled up short, staring helplessly at the tinted windows which he couldn’t see beyond.
“That’s as far as you go,” Franklin said.
“Carmen, hear me out!” Carlos yelled.
A woman riding by on a bike stared at them.
He shouldn’t have let her go. He should have locked her in the apartment and begged and pleaded until she forgave him. She couldn’t leave like this, doubting his love for her. Believing he’d preferred the money over her. He’d simply thought he had no choice, but looking back, he did have a choice. He could have chosen her, and he didn’t. The biggest regret of his life.
Franklin didn’t budge, and he wouldn’t. He’d probably die trying to keep Carlos away from her. Now he knew why she’d brought him this time.
His fingers curled into his palms, and Franklin’s face transformed into stone when he saw Carlos’s fists.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” he warned.
With deep regret, Carlos backed away from the vehicle, but Franklin remained in position, still watching him. When he decided that Carlos had moved far enough away, he opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat.
Carlos heard the power locks engage on the inside.
Seconds later, the vehicle pulled away, leaving him alone on the sidewalk.
19
Carlos hung up the phone in frustration and tossed it on the sofa. Restlessly, he paced the floor.
Where was she? She could at least respond to let him know she received the half a dozen texts and four voicemails he’d left in the few hours since she’d been gone. Had she left for the airport or was she still in the city? He couldn’t stay here. Wondering. Waiting. He’d go mad.
Carlos stopped pacing. Natalie! If Carmen hadn’t gone to the airport, she was probably at Natalie’s.
He grabbed his keys and raced out of the apartment. He drove over the speed limit to Natalie’s place and parked in the underground parking lot. Since he couldn’t get upstairs without being buzzed in, he waited outside her building. At some point, one of the tenants would come out or go in, and then he could slip inside and plead his case from outside the apartment door.
Lucky for him, mere minutes later, Natalie exited the building with earbuds tucked into her ears. She hadn’t noticed him against the outer wall. The same thick twists cascaded down her back as she bounced down the sidewalk to the tune in her ears.
Carlos walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. “Natalie.”
She spun around, and when she saw him, her face transformed into a scowl. She removed the buds, and he heard the faint sound of a hip-hop track. “What do you want?”
This was going to be very, very hard. “I need to talk to Carmen. I need to see her.”
“No and no. She doesn’t want to talk to you or see you. You’ve done enough.”
He fought the urge to yell in anger. “I need to explain the situation.”
Natalie smiled sweetly—too sweetly. Tilting her head, she blinked up at him. “From what I hear, you already explained. There’s nothing more for you to say. Carmen knows what you did and why you did it, and she doesn’t care. You were wrong, and apologizing isn’t going to change that. Leave her alone.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not? You did before, with your pockets full of cash.”
Carlos winced, and she looked almost apologetic.
“I love her.”
“If that’s true, then you shouldn’t want to hurt her,” Natalie said.
“I don’t. I didn’t. I made a mistake. She loves me, Natalie. Let me inside the apartment to talk to her. I only need five minutes.”
“I am not going to betray her trust for you. Carmen is a good person, a sweetheart. Her heart broke when you left, and now to find out your absence was bought…how do you think that makes her feel?”
Her words and unyielding stance revealed the hopelessness of the situation.
“She didn’t deserve what you did. Let her be, Carlos.” Natalie tucked the buds back in her ears and walked away.
Carlos shifted his gaze up the side of the building to the windows above. Carmen was up there. She might even be looking at him right now. So close, yet so far away.
He dropped his gaze to the street filled with cars and shoppers and inhabitants of the buildings, and emptiness filled him. They were supposed to be spending the week together.
Taking her father’s money had been an act of desperation—one he wasn’t proud of—and one he couldn’t explain without a deep sense of shame and regret. Regret that he’d lost Carmen, and now he was losing her all over again.
Gulping back his pain, he put one foot in front of the other and walked slowly back to his car.
Carmen stared up at the ceiling in her old bedroom at her parents’ house, having sought refuge here upon her return to Toronto a few days ago. She hadn’t seen her father because he was out of town. She wasn’t sure what she would say to him when he did arrive because she’d been so ugly to him and so rude during their last face-to-face conversation, when he truly had only been trying to protect her. She’d called him a liar, but in reality, he knew Carlos’s true character.
A knock sounded on the door, and she rolled her head to the side and called, “Come in.”
Her mother walked in with a steaming cup and a sympathetic expression on her face. Carmen sat up against the pillows and accepted the chamomile tea.
Graciela sat on the side of the bed and watched as Carmen took a sip and then rested the cup and saucer on the bedside table.
“How are you feeling, mija?” she asked.
“The same.” Carmen shrugged.
She might never return to the optimistic, easy-going person she used to be. She was disillusioned, hurt, and saddened not only by Carlos’s decision, but also by her own inability to see him for who he really was. Was she so blinded by the romanticism of falling in love and her parents’ example of a happy marriage that she had been willing to accept anything? Willing to turn a blind eye to Carlos’s true character? Even now, she couldn’t remember a moment in their relationship—past or present—when he had ever treated her less than respectfully or lovingly. He was simply that good at faking his feelings for her. Sadly, she had been right all along. She loved him more than he loved her. In fact, he’d clearly never loved her at all.
“I’m so sorry,” Graciela said.
“I’ll be fine…eventually.”
Carmen knew from experience that this feeling of loss would not easily disappear. She should have listened to Natalie—managed her expectations and taken things slow.